Method and apparatus for setting railroad tie plates

ABSTRACT

To remove a tie plate from ballast near a railroad tie and place it on the tie in the proper location to hold a rail, the gripping head of a tie plate setter includes two parallel spaced-apart railroad spikes mounted to the shank portion of a handle by two parallel spaced-apart cross-braces which are welded at right angles to the two railroad spikes and the handle, with the handle having a lower gripping portion bent at a 45* angle to the shank portion adapted to be held in the right or left hand and an upper gripping portion welded to and extending from the lower gripping portion where it joins the shank portion having a grip extending orthogonally thereto and adapted to be held in the other hand. To use the railroad tie plate setting tool, a worker inserts the two spikes of the gripping head into two apertures of the railroad tie plate, while the railroad tie plate is on the ballast near the tie and lifts the plate into the proper position on the tie by rotating the plate setting tool.

United States Patent [1 1 Rowe [ 51 May 13, 1975 METHOD AND APPARATUSFOR SETTING RAILROAD TIE PLATES [76] Inventor: Delton James Rowe, R.F.D.2,

Syracuse, Nebr. 68446 [22] Filed: Feb. 28, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 446,603

Primary E.\'aminerM. Henson Wood, Jr. Assistant Examiner-Richard A.Bertsch Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Vincent L. Carney [57] ABSTRACT Toremove a tie plate from ballast near a railroad tie and place it on thetie in the proper location to hold a rail, the gripping head of a tieplate setter includes two parallel spaced-apart railroad spikes mountedto the shank portion of a handle by two parallel spaced-apartcross-braces which are welded at right angles to the two railroad spikesand the handle, with the handle having a lower gripping portion bent ata 45 angle to the shank portion adapted to be held in the right or lefthand and an upper gripping portion welded to and extending from thelower gripping portion where it joins the shank portion having a gripextending orthogonally thereto and adapted to be held in the other hand.To use the railroad tie plate setting tool, a worker inserts the twospikes of the gripping head into two apertures of the railroad tieplate, while the railroad tie plate is on the ballast near the tie andlifts the plate into the proper position on the tie by rotating theplate setting tool.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 1 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SETTING RAILROADTIE PLATES This invention relates to methods and apparatuses for settingrailroad tie plates.

A work train several days ahead of time throws off supplies along trackwhich is to be modernized by laying ribbon' rail (rails which areone-quarter mile long) to replace the old typerail which is 39 feetlong. These supplies include spikes, anchors, and new heavyduty tieplates.

The Steel Gang (name given to the crew which lays these new ribbonrails) which includes from 75 to 125 men comes along a few days laterremoving old rail and replacing it with new ribbon rail one side at atime. This large crew is divided up into smaller crews of workers andmachine operators each performing a specific task as it moves down thetrack. One such crew of three or four men picks up the tie plates dumpedby the work train and throws them up parallel to the ties. This crew isfollowed by a machine which sprays creosote on the ties which have beenspecially planed and notched for the new plates by an earlier machine.

A second crew of workmen move along the track after the creosote machineand picks up the tie plates by hand. The tie plates are then set in theproper position within a groove on the railroad ties to accommodaterails, with the rails and the tie plates being spiked into the railroadties.

In the prior art, the tie plates are lifted by hand and placed on theties. It is believed that tools are not available to lift the tie platesbecause persons skilled in the art believe that a hook-like arrangementwould not be able to pick up the ties, since it is difficult under mostcircumstances to engage a hook within an aperture of a member resting ona flat surface because the hook is prevented from passing a sufficientdistance through the aperture by the flat surface.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a novel methodand apparatus for setting railroad tie plates.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a tool that isconveniently used by a single workman and a method of using the tool tolift a tie plate and position it properly on the railroad tie withoutthe workman being splashed with creosote.

In accordance with the above and further objects of the invention, arailroad tie plate setting tool includes a gripping head having twoparallel railroad spikes spaced apart by cross-braces and welded to theshank portion of a handle, with the shank portion and a lower grippingportion being formed of a relatively large steel tube bent atapproximately a 45 angle to separate the shank portion from the lowergripping portion, the end of the lower gripping portion being adapted tobe held in the right hand by a workman and the end of the shank portionbeing welded to the cross-braces. An upper handle portion is welded tothe lower handle and includes a grip to be held in the left or righthand of the user.

In use, the spikes of the plate setting tool are inserted throughapertures in the tie plate and into the ballast below the tie plate. Thetie plate is then lifted by pivoting the tool and the tie plate isdeposited on the tie for fastening by spikes.

The tie plate-setting tool of this invention and the method of using ithave several advantages over prior art tools and methods foraccomplishingthe same task,

which are: l the tool and method are safer since there is less danger ofworkmen having creosote splashed in their faces, of slipping on thecreosote as they handle the tie plates, or of receiving back injuries;(2) the method is faster than having men handle the tie plates directly.It has been found that the tool is especially efficient because the tieplates are traditionally dropped on ballast material, thus permittingthe spikes to be inserted easily through the apertures of the tie plate,with the spikes passing into the ballast material.

The above-noted and other features of the invention will be betterunderstood from the following detailed description when considered withreferences to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a railroad track showing thetool as it is positioned to locate railroad ties;

FIG. 2 is an elevational front view of the tie plate setting tool ofFIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is an elevational side view of the tie plate setting tool of FIG.1 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the tie plate setting tool shown in FIG. 1,taken along lines 4-4 of FIG. 2.

In FIG. 1, there is shown a perspective view of a railroad tie platesetter 10 positioned to move a railroad tie plate 12 into position on arailroad tie 14, which railroad tie cooperates with other railroad ties,one of which is shown at 16, to support rails, one rail being shown in18. The railroad ties and the unassembled tie plates such as the oneshown at 12, rest upon a ballast material indicated generally by thenumeral 20 in FIG. 1, which ballast material comprises medium-size rocksthat are 2 or 3 inches in diameter.

The railroad tie plate setter 10 is utilized to move the tie plate 12into position within a depression such as 22 shown in the tie 14.

The tie plates 12 are substantially right, regular, parallepipeds,having a top surface 24 with an elongated recess 26 adapted to receive arail and four apertures 28 extending through the tie plate on each sideof the slots 26 to accommodate eight spikes for holding the tie plate 24and the rail to the ties l4 and 16. The apertures have a squarecross-section with sides threequarters inch long, the longestcross-section dimension thus being approximately 1 1/16 inches long.

The tie plate setter 10 includes a tie plate gripping head 30 includingprojecting spikes which are insertable within two of the apertures 28 ofa tie plate and a handle 32 held by an operator during movement of thetie plate 12 into the depressions 22.

To grip the tie plate 12, the tie plate gripping head 30, best shown inFIG. 2, includes two parallel elongated 6 /2 inch railroad tie spikes 34and 36 with their heads removed and two parallel cross-braces 38 and 40,each of which is welded at one of its ends to a first of the spikes 34and at the other of its ends to a second of the spikes 36 to hold thespikes 34 and 36 in rigid, parallel, spaced-apart position. The distancebetween the two spikes 34 and 36 is equal to the distance between two ofthe apertures 28 in the tie plate 12, preferably being the same distanceas two of the apertures which are adjacent to each other and near thesame side of the elongated recess 26. The cross-braces 38 and 40 mayalso be spikes which have had their pointed tips and heads removedbefore welding to the spikes 34 and 36 or some other type ofsufficiently rigid member.

In the preferred embodiment, the spikes 34 and 36 each have aperpendicular cross-section which is a square with sides five-eighthsinches long, and are pointed at their distal ends so as to pass throughthe tie plate spike holes and into the ballast. The spikes 34 and 36 arepreferably spaced 2 inches apart to be insertable into adjacentapertures near the same side of the recess 26 of a tie plate, but may bespaced 2%, 4 5/16, 5 /8, 6 /3, 2%, 10 /2, 4%, 9%, 12, 8 /2, 4 /2 or 6%inches apart to be insertable into other pairs of apertures. The spikesextend downwardly from the cross-brace 38 at least one-half inch andpreferably at least 1% inches.

The handle 32 includes a shank 42, an upper gripping portion 44, a lowergripping portion 50 and a handle brace 46, as best shown in FIG. 3.

To enable the workman to hold the tie plate gripping head 30conveniently, the shank 42 and lower gripping portion 50 are formed froma one and one-half inch light-gage steel tube approximately 42 incheslong, bent to form the shank 42 approximately 8 inches from one end and27 inches from the other end to form a 10- inch radius bent portion. Theshank 42 is welded at its distal end to the two cross-braces 38 and 40at a location directly between the parallel spikes 34 and 36, with theend of the tube being welded to the lower cross-brace 36 and the side ofthe tube being welded to the cross-brace 40 so that the spikes 34 and 36extend at a relatively acute angle to the longitudinal axis of the shank42.

To enable the tie plate setting tool 10 to be easily pivoted, an uppergripping portion 44 is provided, which upper gripping portion is formedfrom a /2 inch lightgage steel tube welded at one end to the 1 /2 inchtube along the 10-inch radius between the shank 42 and the lowergripping portion and extending upwardly therefrom, with the /2 inch tubebeing bent near its upper end out of the plane passing through theshank, the lower gripping portion, the handle brace and the lower end ofthe upper gripping portion to accommodate a rubber grip 52, whichextends transverse to the longitudinal axis of the unbent portion of theupper handle 44 so that a user of the tie plate setting tool 10 holdsthe rubber grip 52 in his lift or right hand and the end of the lowergripping portion 50 in his other hand when lifting a tie plate 12.

To aid in supporting the upper and lower gripping portions in rigidrelationship, the handle brace 46, which is another steel tube, fitsbetween the lower gripping portion 50 and the upper gripping portion 44,being orthogonal to the lower gripping portion 42 and is welded at eachend to hold the two gripping portions together.

Of course, the plate setting tool 10 may have dimensions other thanthose specified above without deviating from the principles of theinvention. However, for convenience in use, the grip 52 should be nofurther than 2 /2 feet from the lower gripping portion 50 and no closerthan 6 inches. Moreover, the pointed ends of the spikes 34 and 36 shouldbe no closer than 2 feet nor any further than 6 feet from the grip 52.The total length of the plate setting tool 10 should be more than 3 feetmeasured from the pointed ends of the spikes 34 and 36 in a straightline to the end of the lower gripping portion 50.

Before using the tie plate setting tool 10, tie plates 12 are placed atspaced intervals on ballast material (FIG. 1) along the railroad trackcorresponding to the number of positions on the ties. There is usuallycreosote on the ties to preserve the ties.

In use, the tie plate setting tool 10 is used to grip the tie plates 12,lift and place them in the depression 22 of the ties 12.

To grip the tie plates l2, the tie plate setter 10 is held with theright or left hand on the lower gripping portion 50 and the other handholding the hand grip 52. With the tie plate setter 10 held in thismanner, the two spikes 34 and 36 are inserted into two apertures in thetie plate 12 as shown in FIG. 1. The tie plate setter tool 10 is thenpushed downwardly so that the spikes 34 and 32 move into the ballastmaterial 20, permitting a good grip on the tie plate 12.

To lift the tie plate 12 over the depression 22 and the end of the tie14, the end grip 52 and the lower gripping portion 50 of the handle 32are rotated with respect to each other, generally by pushing downwardlyon the gripping portion 50 and the entire handle 32 is moved until thetie plate 12 is over the depression 22 in the tie 14. To lower the tieplate into the depression 22 and to remove the spikes 34 and 36, thelower gripping portion 50 and the upper gripping portion are rotated inthe opposite directions, thus permitting the tie plate to slide off thespikes 34 and 36 into the depression 22.

With the tie plate 12 in place, new rail is placed in its elongatedrecess 26 and then spiked down solid.

The tie plate setting tool and the method of using it have severaladvantages over the prior art tools and methods, which are: (1) they aresafer since there is less danger of employees having creosote splashedin their faces, slipping on the creosote as they handle the tie plate orof receiving back injuries; (2) the method is faster than having menhandle the tie plates directly. It has been found that the tool isespecially efficient because the tie plates are traditionally dropped onthe ballast material, thus permitting the spikes 34 and 36 to beinserted easily through these apertures of the tie plate, with thespikes passing into the ballast material.

What is claimed is:

l. A method of setting railroad tie plates onto ties of a railroad trackcomprising the steps of:

placing railroad tie plates on ballast material near railroad ties;

inserting at least one elongated pointed member through at least oneaperture in the tie plate and into said ballast material;

lifting said elongated member and said tie plate;

positioning said tie plate over a railroad tie with said pointed,elongated member; and

permitting said tie plate to slide from said elongated member.

2. A method according to claim 1 in which:

the step of inserting at least one elongated member includes the step ofinserting at least two pointed, elongated members into two apertures insaid tie plate and into said ballast beneath the tie plates; and

the step of lifting said tie plate includes the step of pivoting saidmembers about a point to pivot said tie plate about said point.

3. A method according to claim 1 in which the step of inserting at leastone pointed, elongated members includes the step of inserting at leasttwo elongated members having a length of at least one-half inch bershaving a longest cross-sectional dimension less than 1 /8 inches throughtwo apertures into said tie plate.

1. A method of setting railroad tie plates onto ties of a railroad trackcomprising the steps of: placing railroad tie plates on ballast materialnear railroad ties; inserting at least one elongated pointed memberthrough at least one aperture in the tie plate and into said ballastmaterial; lifting said elongated member and said tie plate; positioningsaid tie plate over a railroad tie with said pointed, elongated member;and permitting said tie plate to slide from said elongated member.
 2. Amethod according to claim 1 in which: the step of inserting at least oneelongated member includes the step of inserting at least two pointed,elongated members into two apertures in said tie plate and into saidballast beneath the tie plates; and the step of lifting said tie plateincludes the step of pivoting said members about a point to pivot saidtie plate about said point.
 3. A method according to claim 1 in whichthe step of inserting at least one pointed, elongated members includesthe step of inserting at least two elongated members having a length ofat least one-half inch through said apertures and into said ballast atleast one-eighth inch.
 4. A method according to claim 3 in which thestep of inserting at least two of said pointed members includes the stepof inserting at least two pointed members having a longestcross-sectional dimension less than 1 1/8 inches through two aperturesinto said tie plate.